Personally, I always assumed that medkits were foot-activated boxes of nanobots that spring to life, suture your wounds and pump you full of anesthetic, then drop to the ground, batteries and supplies expended. I don't care if nothing else in the setting would allow that, it's the only way I can think of them working in-universe.

Thunderous Cacophony:Personally, I always assumed that medkits were foot-activated boxes of nanobots that spring to life, suture your wounds and pump you full of anesthetic, then drop to the ground, batteries and supplies expended. I don't care if nothing else in the setting would allow that, it's the only way I can think of them working in-universe.

That is really cool.

You know that someone is doing something unsafe when Eren looks worried.

This is the thing that kept going through my mind re-playing the Max Payne games. All these pain killers aren't actually keeping Max from bleeding out. Even then they take 30 min to kick in so unless he's snorting the things, he shouldn't stop limping automatically.

Thing about Call of Duty is, story wise, I think the character you're playing as is never actually hit with a bullet. The health regen is just a mechanic completely divorced from everything else.

I think when it comes to games, just fuck realism up its ass all together.

Shadowstar38:This is the thing that kept going through my mind re-playing the Max Payne games. All these pain killers aren't actually keeping Max from bleeding out. Even then they take 30 min to kick in so unless he's snorting the things, he shouldn't stop limping automatically.

This is Max Payne we're talking about. Snorting them wouldn't be unexpected.

I always thought the medkits in Half-Life worked through injection. Unless my memory of them making a hissing noise is from somewhere else.

Shadowstar38:This is the thing that kept going through my mind re-playing the Max Payne games. All these pain killers aren't actually keeping Max from bleeding out. Even then they take 30 min to kick in so unless he's snorting the things, he shouldn't stop limping automatically.

Thing about Call of Duty is, story wise, I think the character you're playing as is never actually hit with a bullet. The health regen is just a mechanic completely divorced from everything else.

I think when it comes to games, just fuck realism up its ass all together.

Damn you Grey and Cory! Thanks for making go on this pointless rant.

With Call of Duty, I always used the logic that your protagonist is actually Neo levels of dodging skills. When shot, you are literally dodging bullets. The blood is literally in your eyes because the stress and intensity of dodging bullets is causing blood vessels to burst.

Shadowstar38:This is the thing that kept going through my mind re-playing the Max Payne games. All these pain killers aren't actually keeping Max from bleeding out. Even then they take 30 min to kick in so unless he's snorting the things, he shouldn't stop limping automatically.

Thing about Call of Duty is, story wise, I think the character you're playing as is never actually hit with a bullet. The health regen is just a mechanic completely divorced from everything else.

I think when it comes to games, just fuck realism up its ass all together.

Damn you Grey and Cory! Thanks for making go on this pointless rant.

I always assumed that the CoD strawberry jam meant the character got hit, but in an area covered by his (and now her - huzzah, progress! ...that R6V and HALO had ten years ago...) ballistic resistant vest/ceramic plates/helmet. So that red is the shock of non-lethal impact, which the character takes a while to shake off. Further impacts will tear through the armor. Which is why you can still get one-hit-killed by skilled players doing headshots or using weapons like powerful sniper rifles with a high enough calibre to penetrate your armor in one hit.

This was also how I saw HP in D&D and whatnot - none of these blows ever actually broke through the armor, which is why you never lost a limb or anything, they just hit your armor and bruised/rattled you, slowly battering your resistance down. Armor increased your THAC0 because even though it didn't make you any harder to physically hit, it made it harder to land blows that bruised you.

Shadowstar38:This is the thing that kept going through my mind re-playing the Max Payne games. All these pain killers aren't actually keeping Max from bleeding out. Even then they take 30 min to kick in so unless he's snorting the things, he shouldn't stop limping automatically.

Thing about Call of Duty is, story wise, I think the character you're playing as is never actually hit with a bullet. The health regen is just a mechanic completely divorced from everything else.

I think when it comes to games, just fuck realism up its ass all together.

Damn you Grey and Cory! Thanks for making go on this pointless rant.

I always assumed that the CoD strawberry jam meant the character got hit, but in an area covered by his (and now her - huzzah, progress! ...that R6V and HALO had ten years ago...) ballistic resistant vest/ceramic plates/helmet. So that red is the shock of non-lethal impact, which the character takes a while to shake off. Further impacts will tear through the armor. Which is why you can still get one-hit-killed by skilled players doing headshots or using weapons like powerful sniper rifles with a high enough calibre to penetrate your armor in one hit.

This was also how I saw HP in D&D and whatnot - none of these blows ever actually broke through the armor, which is why you never lost a limb or anything, they just hit your armor and bruised/rattled you, slowly battering your resistance down. Armor increased your THAC0 because even though it didn't make you any harder to physically hit, it made it harder to land blows that bruised you.

To be fair, D/D has WAAAAAAAAAAAY more leeway when it comes to healing and regeneration, simply because of its setting. You could make a point which supports your narrative, definitely, but someone giving you a nasty wound and it being healed through the use of some commonplace healing methods isn't entirely outlandish. CoD and the like really has the one you described, which can also be given an addendum of: despite your armor, continuous impact at high velocity in multiple crucial areas puts you into severe shock/effective casualty state; because even if you have the armor that can withstand bullets, being pummeled by them in likeness to a jackhammer isn't going to leave you feeling chipper.

With Freeman, I always assumed that 'Health' was an indication of 'how much the HEV is currently equipped to deal with'...a medkit wasn't healing you on pickup, it was re-stocking the suit's internal medical systems, which were frenticly working to keep Gordon upright and mobile all the time. He'd get shot, and the suit would immediately expend whatever it had on hand to seal the leak, and be quietly working on that until it was 'good enough' any time Gordon wasn't actively being shot some more.

VaporWare:With Freeman, I always assumed that 'Health' was an indication of 'how much the HEV is currently equipped to deal with'...a medkit wasn't healing you on pickup, it was re-stocking the suit's internal medical systems, which were frenticly working to keep Gordon upright and mobile all the time. He'd get shot, and the suit would immediately expend whatever it had on hand to seal the leak, and be quietly working on that until it was 'good enough' any time Gordon wasn't actively being shot some more.

That sounded like Super Metroid. The death animation is literally the armor exploding into pieces, leaving Samus exposed to harsh enviroment with nothing but her underwear.

Thunderous Cacophony:Personally, I always assumed that medkits were foot-activated boxes of nanobots that spring to life, suture your wounds and pump you full of anesthetic, then drop to the ground, batteries and supplies expended. I don't care if nothing else in the setting would allow that, it's the only way I can think of them working in-universe.

So what about the original Call of Duty's flask and trauma kits?

In modern-esque military shooters, I've always seen them as a magical (or 'futuristic', if you prefer) universal blood transfusions with artificial clotting agents to seal old wounds. And I've always seen old games with life counters as if the protagonist is a clone, with a clone bank in a mobile laboratory and deployment vehicle that they bring to every theatre of operations.

That being said, I think one of the few games that did healing well is VtM: Bloodlines... precisely because you weren't a squishy human ... you were an undead monster with no discernibly working organs or cardiovascular system. Relying on regular intervals of oral blood infusion. So ... you know ... bullets did fuck all. Not like you need most of your organs intact if you're undead.

Of course, healing over seared or sliced flesh requires the blood of the living. Because of reasons ... which, just as magical as a videogame medikit, seem somehow a little less unreasonable a notion to believe. That and there is something piquant about getting the equivalent of a medikit by jumping onto a mortal and bleeding them to leave them in a state of near (or total, if you're a douche) hypovolemic shock.

Just don't get the same level of fun when you quaff a potion, or run over a medikit. I suppose it's a perfect example of making all elements of the game a gameplay mechanic.

That being said, I also like the Alice games of health rejuvenation ... this idea of 'meta-essence' as you cleave through the demons of your mind to recover not so much 'health', but maintaining your sanity in an insane world. Equally enjoyable, and that was simply a case of touching 'medikits' too ...

Yes, health regeneration doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But I'm very glad that someone thought of it, and now it's in all the video games, because otherwise there would be a lot of badass moments that couldn't happen. I'd rather have less health more often than start out with a demigodlike amount of health and have to fight people later when one wrong sneeze will kill me. Or start out with a normal amount of health and restart any time I get hit by anything.

Thunderous Cacophony:Personally, I always assumed that medkits were foot-activated boxes of nanobots that spring to life, suture your wounds and pump you full of anesthetic, then drop to the ground, batteries and supplies expended. I don't care if nothing else in the setting would allow that, it's the only way I can think of them working in-universe.

So what about the original Call of Duty's flask and trauma kits?

In modern-esque military shooters, I've always seen them as a magical (or 'futuristic', if you prefer) universal blood transfusions with artificial clotting agents to seal old wounds. And I've always seen old games with life counters as if the protagonist is a clone, with a clone bank in a mobile laboratory and deployment vehicle that they bring to every theatre of operations.

The problem with blood transfusions it that it requires you to actually do something to get the benefit; you can't just sprint over a bag of blood and absorb it through the soles of your boots. Nanobots don't fit in most settings, but neither does the fact that you're a hovering gun and camera who can't see his own feet.

This is why I think Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, has the best health system I've seen in game.

Your squad you're in has a corpsman who'll heal you on command, or when you go into a 'near death' state when you run out of health. However he has a limited number of supplies and so can only heal you a certain amount of times per map or mission on the hardest difficulty.

The only time health kits appear in game is a section when he's occupied healing a mission specific NPC.